A known contacting apparatus to which the present invention relates, is shown in FIG. 4. Said contacting apparatus comprises a contact element support which encloses a mounting section or portion of each of said contact elements so that the contact forces occurring at the time the contact elements are in contact engagement are taken-up or balanced. The minimum thickness of the contact element support is the sum of the thickness of the material below the contact element, the thicknesses of the material of the contact element, and the thickness of the material above the contact element. It is to be noted, that the thicknesses of the material surrounding the contact element in the injection molding process cannot be reduced at will. If there is too much of a reduction of the material surrounding the contact elements the stability of the contacting apparatus is too low. It can also happen, that the support location of the contact element is not completely covered with material during the injection molding process because the thickness of the wall or material is too low. Indeed, the need to fill the mold requires a certain minimum wall thickness for the material enclosing the contact element.
Another problem with the prior art contacting apparatus according to FIG. 4 is the following. The termination portion of the contact element which is located oppositely to the contacting portion of the contact element needs to be deformed i.e. put in a certain form. Such a deformation can be necessary in particular for SMD-soldering terminations so as to achieve the required coplanarity. I.e. the termination portion of the contact element should coextend with the surface of a printed circuit board in a planar manner. Such deformation has to be carried out either prior or after the contact element(s) is (are) mounted by a) injection molding in the contact element support or b) insertion therein. Due to the spring characteristics of the contact element a very precise adjustment and checking during the manufacturing process is required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a contacting apparatus of the type described above such that the contact element support has a minimal thickness (design height), while at the same time the contact element(s) is (are) well fixed in said contact element support.
It is another object of the invention to provide a contact element support such that it is not necessary to deform said contact element(s) to achieve good coplanarity after the contact element(s) is (are) fixedly mounted in said contact element support.